Discusses major school reforms during the last two decades in Japan, South Korea, England, and the United States. In England and the United States, reform efforts have focused on raising standards, tightening curriculum and assessment, and improving academic achievement. In Japan and Korea, reform focused in deregulating schools, diversifying…

Texts of conference papers and summaries of colloquia on second language curriculum design are presented, including: "Competency Assessment in Curriculum Renewal" (summary of session with Ian Harrison, Francis Johnson, Christopher Candlin, Anthony Green, David Nunan, Charles Smith); "The Evolving of a Curriculum" (Hiroshi Abe,…

The process of revising the second language curriculum in a Japanese postsecondary vocational school is described, focusing on the collaborative approach taken. The school provides second language instruction and vocational training in several occupational areas. A number of research teams or "focus groups" were established, each with a…

The first volume of the 29th annual conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education contains plenary lecture and research forum papers as listed below. Short oral communications papers, poster presentations, brief summaries of discussion groups, and working sessions are also included in the volume. The plenary…